Thursday, 11 November 2010

After a somewhat lengthy absence Zotter is now back on the ChocolateMission radar. My latest reviews will come in a timely manner for you all to hear the latest bunch of flavours being generated at Mr Zotter's Austrian madhouse in time for Christmas. The latest bunch of bars he has sent along aren't festive themed in the slightest, though I can imagine they would make great gifts given the bizarre flavour combinations that the brand continually comes up with. With that said, the Zotter Strong Coffee chocolate I tried today is probably one of the more sensible sounding offerings I have reviewed from them in a long time. Described as 'Noble bitter chocolate filled with strong coffee cream' it certainly had me licking my lips in anticipation.

Like the majority of Zotter's Handscooped bars this came in a 70.0g form that I consumed across a few different after dinner coffee sessions. Last time I checked the wrappers were supposed to communicate some sort of humour - unless I'm totally missing something this was more just an artsy looking deal. It has been mentioned in previous Zotter reviews that the bars often look a bit similar and unexciting. This darkly coloured truffle filled chocolate didn't exactly provide any counter evidence against this, however the rich coffee scents provided a more than appetising insight to taste which was nice distraction.

If you look back in the archives at my previous reviews of coffee flavoured chocolates you will see that the sentence 'this could have been better if the coffee element was stronger' is a line that is very commonly featured. What with Zotter promising me Strong Coffee in the name of the product I was never going to settle for anything less - another weakly flavoured bar would not only have been disappointing, but it would also have been a total lie. Thankfully the rather meagre sounding 2% coffee powder stood up to the test and managed to establish itself on the taste quite prominently despite the strength of the 70% cocoa dark chocolate. The flavour path of this bar went through three main stages, with the bar establishing a fruity, cocoa led taste from the outset. Upon uncovering the soft feeling truffle below, the bar then progressed flavour wise with a rich set of fresh roasted coffee taking over. As the last of the chocolate melted away the initial fruityness returned and left a minor note of sweet whiskey in the mouth. Despite the sweetness being greater than I expected, I still felt like this was a very rich tasting chocolate and I was more than happy just consuming the bar in small portions each sitting.

Overall this Zotter Strong Coffee bar wasn't my favourite coffee flavoured chocolate I have ever tried before, but it was decent attempt at the combination and like most Zotter chocolates it certainly deviated from what I expected. The raisin like fruit flavours established were a surprise addition to the taste, so the level of sweetness was considerably higher than I thought they were going to be. In hindsight I can see the sense in producing the bar like this as I'm pretty sure that the average person may have found the experience excessively bitter without it. Reflecting back on this bar, although it has still deservedly scored very well on the rating system, I'm unsure as to whether I would buy it again given that I'm aware of better alternatives out there. At least I didn't have to write yet another review complaining about the underpowered coffee taste.